It’s time to catch ’em all, all over again. In this episode of the Random Nintendo Podcast, we head to the tropics of Alola to bring you in-depth impressions of the highly anticipated Pokemon Sun & Moon. It’s also Switch rumors galore as we break down a bevy of rumors about the upcoming console’s game lineup, including what’s coming at launch, additional ports you may not expect, and reports of a Mario x Rabbids RPG (yes, you read that correctly). Plus, we discuss Super Mario Run’s newly announced price, Ditto’s debut in Pokemon Go, and Nintendo’s October sales numbers.

This episode also marks our fifth anniversary, and to celebrate, we’re giving you a chance to win a $50 eShop credit! When our podcast first began, the 3DS was only six months old and the Wii U was still a year away. Now with nearly their entire lifespans under our show’s belt, we want to hear your favorite 3DS and/or Wii U memory. Simply leave a comment below with your memory – be it a specific game, a moment with friends, or something else entirely – and our favorite will receive the full $50 eShop credit. The winner will be announced in our next episode, so make sure you don’t miss it by subscribing to us to on iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcasting app, as well as following us on Twitter @RandomNintendo.

As always, we’ve included links below for more information on the news and games discussed in this episode. Each link also lists a time stamp so you can easily locate the segment that most interest. We hope you enjoy, and whether you’ve been with us from day one or just tuned in recently, thank you for listening over the past half-decade!

Official Contest Rules: All registrants must be a resident of the United States of America and age 13 or older. The contest begins on November 27, 2016 at 12:00 AM PST and ends on December 8, 2016 at 11:59 PM PST. Visitors may only enter the contest once by leaving a comment below. Any additional entries that a given visitor makes will be disqualified. One (1) commenter will be chosen at the discretion of the Random Nintendo team and receive the following prize: one (1) digital code redeemable for $50 in credit on the US Nintendo eShop. Random Nintendo staff members may not participate in this contest. Random Nintendo reserves the right to disqualify any entry for any reason. The winner will be chosen at random on December 9, 2016, announced in Episode 139 of the Random Nintendo Podcast, and then notified via email.

21 Responses to “Episode 138: Aloha From Alola”

In all this years playing wit my 3DS and Wii U everyday was an adventure. Right now i’m playing Pokémon Moon and man, what a great game this is. I’m a trainer since Red version when you still need to buy batteries to play and it was a long a awesome journey to this day. Pokémon Moon/Sun have so many little easter eggs to the classic games that while i play it felt so good and i’m having always a smile in my face. If i win this contest i will give the prize to my little nephew, a young trainer that remind myself because he wanted Sun version for this Christmas. Good luck everyone and keep up the good work.

Out of all the games from this generation none of them have brought me more memories than Animal Crossing New Leaf. This one game alone ate up over one thousand hours of game play. Now I know that sounds crazy, because well it is. However I did nearly everything possible in this one game and also went through kind of extreme lengths to help others for their town’s needs.

In fact I wasn’t even planning on getting the game , but a friend of mine begged me to . Although we aren’t friends anymore due to non gaming circumstances, I was able to become part of a community in which I did make friends. I helped donated bells to their public works, traded/gave away fossils & paintings, gave clothes to people to help them pass Gracie’s test, opened up for town signatures, let them come over to buy or log in an item in their catalogue , turnips and other special animal visits. Basically anything you can think of, I let them do.

Even when nothing special was going on during the game, we made our own fun. We would visit each other towns to give opinions on how to decorate . We would go online looking for patterns for pathways and clothes designs. We would set up island game night and just play those games and also beetle grind for bells . We spend the game events together, I clearly remember going to three different towns to celebrate the new year . It was actually neat because they were all apart of different time zones.

The most craziest memory I have is when I got into buying and trading villagers. I know it sounds kind of like a black market for villagers, because it kind of was. lol People would basically put up their villagers for either other villagers or items & bells. I went a little nuts and signed up nearly everywhere possible and would check for what my friends most wanted villagers. I went on gamefaqs, bell tree forums, neogaf, twitter, reddit, and tumblr. I would check quite often and actually nabbed high wanted villagers such as Bob, Fauna, Ankha and such. I even set up a second monitor at one point so I could check more places at once. lol

There was one villager that I was always slow on getting which was Diana the snooty deer. My best new leaf friend always wanted her and she helped me out quite a bit so I always felt bad whenever I missed out on Diana. However one day I was able to get Diana and I clearly remember this because I had to run about two miles in order to meet the person in time to actually pick up Diana. I never told her about the running or the actual amount I paid for Diana, but I know she just loved the fact that I went out of my way just to get some video game deer.

Eventually things died down in our community as other games came out. I was one of the last few that held out the longest. I still made time for new games , but would easily help someone out if they asked. The new update is slowly bringing most of us back together and it’s also slowly breaking me into buying those new villagers amiibo cards. Now if I never got into this group I would have still enjoyed the game, but because of them I was able to experience Animal Crossing in a completely new way and because of them I will never forget the memories this game had brought me.

My best Nintendo Memory was Christmas 1988. Now I’m 33 years old.. and I’ve been playing games since I was 3-ish. I remember my brothers having an Atari and a CelecoVision. 8 remember messing around with Frogger, Donkey Kong and Burger Time.. but when I woke up Christmas morning 1988.. And unwrapped my first Console.. I erupted with joy and from that moment I was hooked.

It was a NES bundle that included the system (duh), Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt/Track and Field (all on ONE cartridge! Unheard of!) trackmat and Zapper. Up until then I’ve never seen a game like that.. Even at 5 I knew Super Mario Bros was a work of art and looking back.. The opening of the game (before you pres start) was basically a “how to” manual. Finding secrets, different warp pipes, etc blew my little mind. I couldn’t believe games came so far in such a short amount of time!

Nintendo only got better for me.. a few Christmases later and the SNES/Super Mario combo was under the tree.. along with Link to the Past. The SNES may be, IMHO the best Nintendo console of all time…. Maybe one of the best consoles of all time period.

Honestly I feel I grew up with Nintendo. I’ve had everything of theirs.. from their first system to their latest and everything in between (Yes… even the Virtual Boy..) so I guess you could say my best Nintendo memory is… Nintendo period. I honestly can’t pick just one. While they can be goofy and do some dumb things… They have given me far too much joy over my life to every write them off or not have their systems in my home.

My children, 8 and 2 now share that Nintendo joy. My son absolutely loves all things Mario with Mario Sunshine probably being his favorite.. and while my daughter is too young yet to really play games.. She absolutely loves to watch Mario Kart and Animal Crossing being played. Pokémon as well.

It’s such a joy to see my kids growing with and enjoying Nintendo as well. I hope that love of Nintendo only grows with them.. Like it did me.

Thank you guys for giving me the opportunity to share this with you. Keep up the good work on the Podcast

Day one purchase of Wii U is what did it for me. First game was 3D World. Me and my daughter had so many hours of fun on that game. So polished and colorful! Nintendo had finally went HD and it was beautiful! My daughter still has our Wii U and plays it on occasion and uses Netflix regularly. After I get her a Nintendo Switch, I plan to move the Wii U back into my room. Lol

My favorite 3DS memory is when i was playing my first ever 3DS game Mario Kart 7. I loved how i got to unlock karts and characters such as the wiggler enemy, the honey bee queen, wario and more. And i loved how you got to play with everyone wherever you are! and i liked racing as my Mii and if im in a hotel Such as The Courtyard Marriott in Massachusetts i can race peoples ghost data for competition. And The new feature kart customization is wonderful since you get to create different kinds of kart combinations. And that is my favorite 3DS memory.

My favorite Nintendo memory is playing Xenoblade on my New 3DS and seeing the waterfalls. It was a wow moment, I can’t believe a hand held is doing this. I posted a screenshot to Mii verse and I think Jason you commented if I remember right. I have need listening since episode 1 and appreciate every show. You guys were my first friends on my 3DS and WiiU. Congratulations and I hope to listen for years to come.

My favorite memories of playing WiiU would be the few times I was able to get a group of people together for a Smash bros or Mariokart tournament. Online play is always fine with these games, but whenever I can get people together for couch co-op, that’s when I feel Nintendo is at its best. I’m probably just nostalgic as it reminds me of being a kid, having friends over and playing video games. Whatever the reason, the WiiU was a perfect excuse to have friends come together for some fun.

All the memories and moments from the games that I have played have been special but if I had to choose just one, it would probably be playing pokemon moon for the first time.

I received it as a gift from a friend who is very close to me. I had been going through a tough time dealing with something personal and hadn’t even noticed the release date for sun and moon creeping up.

I have always been a huge fan of both pokemon and Nintendo. When I first started my pokemon moon journey I knew it was going to be a special one from the moment I chose my trusty rowlet to accompany me on my quest. And what a quest it was and still is.

Pokémon moon is probably the first game in quite a few years to capture my full attention and make me feel like a kid again back when I first played pokemon red. These days with every game trying to be the next biggest and greatest I feel like theres something special with the way Nintendo crafts their games. something sort of like a Disney-esque magic that makes everyone feel all warm inside.

My favorite 3ds memory is a recent one I have gotten board of online games and the communities within them.

I had always wanted a 3ds but just couldn’t afford one so this past Black Friday deal was perfect for me! I picked it up along side a copy of Pokemon moon and I couldn’t have been happier I am not yet finished with the game but it has been super fun so far

Congratulations on 5 years, guys! I came on board I think around early year 3 and can’t believe how fast this time is going. I can only hope it keeps going this fast until the Switch comes out, haha. I listen to the show driving to and from work, so sometimes takes me a couple days to listen to the whole episode, but I ALWAYS enjoy it. 🙂

My favorite 3DS memory personally was when Animal Crossing New Leaf came out. I got the awesome new Animal Crossing 3DS XL bundle first thing in the morning at GameStop and it was such a relief to finally play it after such a long wait. And I am enjoying the game all over again with the update, too!

my favorite 3ds memory was when i had my earphones conmected to my 3ds and then I went to pee and i put my 3ds on the tank and I still had my earphones plugged in and then I pulled away after finishing my tinkle and I dropped the 3ds in the toilet. I reached into the toilet trying to save my precious 3ds but it was too late. It was soaked in urine as was my forearm. I had to throw my baby away. Then i had to go on a date but I didnt have enough time to shower so you can imagine how that went. mario kart 7 was cool I guess.

My favorite 3DS memory is of a snow day when the roads were too slick for me to get to work. It also happened to be Festivale in Animal Crossing New Leaf, so the wife and I played all day, hours upon hours upon hours trying to collect all those feathers for Pave to get the full set of furniture. I don’t even remember what that furniture looks like, but to this day we will randomly exclaim “Festivale!” and chuckle.

Favorite memory has to be loading in the new Pokemon moon and realizing that they made everyone so nice! I swear your rival felt like your rival in the original Pokemon games. Maybe I haven’t made it far enough to not like my rival yet. Or I am less sensitive as an adult.